April Fools
by NessaMoon
Summary: Hinata's running down the halls of the academy. "Meet me out back in the training areas after school is over. I need to talk to you - Naruto" NaruHina. Oneshot.


This is late, I know. This fic was inspired by a friend of mine. She suggested I write something on April Fool's Day. It was just a writing exercise because I had said I'm not really good at brainstorming. I think she was aiming for something like a column since we were discussing my past college experience, however, of course, I had to come up with a NaruHina fanfic! Typical me. I'll discuss what prompted the fic at the end, kay? And...the ending might be lame... Uh oh...

Wave my hands and poof! Here's a fanfic!

Title: April Fools  
Genre: Fluff  
Timeline: Pre-Manga  
Summary: Hinata gets a note from Naruto to meet her after school.  
Pairings: NaruHina  
Rating: G  
Disclaimer: Link, my Word Kitty, says Naruto is owned by Kishimoto. Link says I own nothing and am earning no money from writing this fanfic. Isn't Link a smart kitty? XD

* * *

Nine year old Hinata held the note in her hand close to her chest as she made her way to the back of the school where the training areas were located. She had come back from lunch to find it folded on top of her books at her desk. The moment she had read it, her heart immediately started fluttering.

_Hinata,_

_Meet me out back in the training areas after school is over. I need to talk to you._

_Naruto_

Her heart had continued racing all day long, so anxious she was about the meeting that she had jumped when Iruka had called on her in class twice. For the rest of the afternoon, she had tried to get a glimpse of Naruto, the spiky blond, blue eyed boy in her class, to see what he wanted, but he never glanced her way. She could not possibly know what he wanted to talk to her about; she was always watching him and was sure he had not noticed her (well, beyond the typical casual glimpse, which caused her to look away, much to her disappointment).

Ever since she started at the Ninja Academy, she had always held a small crush on him. She admired him a great deal for his determination to get better, to not be held down by his contest failures or by the people around him who put him down (she had no idea why they would, through). He was always cheerful and happy (most would call him annoying and hyper). For someone who had her share of failures and people putting her down, Hinata found him uplifting.

So the note meant the world to her. Finally, Naruto was starting to notice her! She tried to imagine having a conversation with him, but could not get past her blushing madly.

Two teachers walked past her in the hallway, neither of them sparing her much of a glance. She did not either, continuing to clutch the note and obvious to the world around her. All that mattered in the end, after all, was Naruto.

Reaching the end of the hallway, she stepped outside and onto the walkway that lead to the training grounds. She could clearly see the area from where she stood, but Naruto was no where to be seen.

Hinata frowned. Where was he? Could he be hiding? _Naruto-kun does get in trouble a lot… Maybe the teachers don't like it when students are back here and he's hiding? _ Of course, that did not explain why the two teachers walked past her without much of a word, but then again, she was a Hyuuga and she had found she received some leeway due to being the heir. Thinking Naruto was just hiding, she took another step outside.

Splash! Mud came down on her in buckets. It was as if she had stepped under a waterfall. She immediately held her breath, falling to her knees and ducking for all the good it did.

Finally, the downpour stopped. She was soaked to the bone and completely coated in brown mud. She shivered, cold, and hugged herself tightly while she glanced around looking for the source of the mud.

And then the laughter began.

Two boys, bullies from her class named Seiji and Takeshi, jumped off the roof, both of them holding mud caked buckets. The two of them had been held back so they were a year older than her and the rest of her classmates. Seiji had black hair pulled back in a small ponytail with two dark red patches on his cheeks and he wore a red shirt and black pants. Takeshi had short dark brown hair and wore solid black clothing, a sleeveless shirt and shorts.

Seiji sneered at her. "Ha! I can't believe she fell for a trick like that. Seems like the rumors are true, huh, Takeshi?" he remarked.

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, the so-called great Hyuuga clan has a stupid heir in their mist. I didn't think she would be this stupid, either; actually believing that note we wrote!"

Seiji nodded. "I know, to think she actually likes that stupid Naruto and she actually thought he would invite her somewhere."

"He's probably like everyone else and doesn't even like her."

No words could describe how terrible Hinata felt. The whole thing had been a trick, the note not written at all by Naruto, but by one of these two boys. Each sentence uttered by Seiji and Takeshi felt like sharp rocks were being thrown at her. She felt ashamed for even thinking Naruto wanted to talk to her, that he even spared her a glance.

_How can anyone even think me worthy anymore? _ She thought to herself depressed. _There's no way Naruto-kun would ever like a failure like me. _

The boys walked away, laughing up a storm and leaving Hinata alone and in the mud, close to tears.

--

Naruto kicked at a stone on his way to the academy swing he so often frequented. He rubbed a bit of the mud off his cheek, mud that had been thrown at him by the class bullies, Seiji and Takeshi. He had been minding his own business for once and had planned on buying some ramen.

At least, he had until Seiji and Takeshi had come by. For some reason, they had been carrying muddy buckets and had been talking about some April Fools prank they had pulled. They had thrown mud at him and stole the money he had planned to use to buy ramen. Since the two of them were a year older than him, they were able to push around a bit (he was only 9). The only way he could fight back (without getting too beat up in the process) was by pulling pranks.

But the worst part of the whole ordeal had been the villagers' smirks and cruel laughter during the whole thing.

So he was off to the swing. He would stay there for awhile, alone, likely until sundown and then go home. He would think of some prank and then perform it the next day or by the end of the week: trying to show the villagers up, that he was someone, even if it was a negative image.

"Okay, when I get to be a great ninja," he said to himself, "I'm going to seriously beat those two up. Gotta do it before I become Hokage, through." Somehow, he did not think it appropriate for a Hokage to beat up ninja from his own village. The Third Hokage never did it. "Maybe I could make them do silly errands for me," he thought with a grin. "Or maybe they'll become those ninja Iruka-sensei talked about when they leave the village! Yeah!" Naruto put his hands behind his head and laughed. "Then I'll track them down and throw them in prison."

He was still daydreaming what he would do to Seiji and Takeshi once he was a better ninja when he heard someone crying. He turned the corner and came upon the academy and his swing, but someone was already sitting on it. The person was covered in dried mud so it was hard to tell exactly who it was. All he could see was that the person had short hair, likely his age judging from the height and a girl.

Cautiously, he crept up to her, all too aware at the thought that she would reject him like the rest of the villagers. Finally, he stood about four feet away from her and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Uh? Are you okay?"

The girl jumped about a foot in the air. Both of them screamed, Naruto took a step back while the girl got off the swing and hid behind the tree. His heart sank. He had been trying to be helpful and yet she was just like the rest of them. He sighed and, with his head down, turned around to go home.

"Na – Na – Narururu – to-kun? Wha – what're you do – doing here?"

He blinked, very much surprised at the voice. Carefully, he glanced backwards to see the girl hiding behind the tree, sticking her head out almost like a turtle in its shell, her white eyes (he was sure he seen those eyes before?) the only thing visible with all the mud covering her. Her voice did not sound like the villagers, oozing with hate and spite. She sounded nervous and sad and something else, he could not put a finger on what exactly it was.

However, she did not sound like she hated his very existence so he turned around and kicked one of the rocks on the ground. "I just came by to sit on the swing for awhile." The girl avoided his eyes, but he was pretty sure there had not been any resentment for wanting the swing. "What are you doing here? I thought I was the only one that uses this swing."

The girl withdrew behind the tree some more (she was confusing him more by the second, he had never met a girl this weird). "Well…I…um…see…I…um…"

"And why are you covered in mud? You must have fallen in a huge mud puddle to get that dirty." Naruto wondered where such a puddle could be since he was sure it had not rained in the past few days. He rubbed his cheek as the girl fidgeted behind the tree, but as he brought his hand back down, he realized his hand was smeared with mud. That made him think about Seiji and Takeshi throwing mud at him…and their buckets that had clearly been filled with mud. Did that mean…? "Hey…did Seiji and Takeshi do this too you?" he asked, taking a step forward.

The girl gasped. She moved slightly out from behind the tree and then nodded her head. "Yes," she said softly.

Naruto had been picked on for as long as he could remember, he had been picked on for no reason, just by standing people had throw stuff at him. He had been picked on for being loud, for pulling pranks, tons of things he could not even remember off the top of his head. He hated every bit of it, but had learned, somewhat, to live with it.

However, picking on someone else, a helpless girl for that matter, was another issue entirely. Naruto felt angry. He looked sideways down toward the ground, gritting his teeth, visibly shaking with fury.

A quiet sob broke him out of his rage as he realized the girl was still in front of him. She was still very upset over what those bullies had done to her. Perhaps he should cheer her up somehow? But how? _Wait, don't girls like…? I guess I could… It wouldn't hurt to take one…"_

"Hey, could you wait here for awhile?" The girl hesitated for a second, but then nodded. Naruto smiled. "Good. I'll be right back."

And with that, he turned around and headed straight for his apartment. He had a couple of things to get.

--

Hinata nervously leaned against the tree while she waited Naruto's return, her heart beating quite fast. Naruto's appearance had scared her quite a bit as she had still did not think he would talk to her much less approach her. Yet he had. Maybe it was because she was covered in mud and he could not recognize her, but regardless of the reason, he had talked to her.

She had noticed he had been covered in mud as well, not quite as much as she had been, but his whiskered cheeks had mud smeared on them and as well as his hair and shirt. He must have had a run in with Seiji and Takeshi as well.

The two boys picked on Naruto a lot. They picked on everyone, but so far Naruto had been picked on the most this year. She had been mostly left alone, likely because she was a Hyuuga. Why they had picked on her now of all times, she had no idea.

Hinata closed her eyes and tried to rub some of the mud off her forehead. She did not know how many times she had imagined coming to Naruto's aid and protecting him from the bullies, however, as always, she had been too scared. The few times she had been targeted by Seiji and Takeshi (or someone else), it had been about how she had been a failure as a Hyuuga, a fact the entire class knew. Every time someone mentioned it, she would curl up in her seat and hide her face until a teacher came in the room and the student had to leave her alone.

Of course, Naruto's responses to the bullies always served to inspire her. He would stand up if pushed down, get angry when spoken down to and try to attack when harmed. If only she could be as brave as him…

_I'm going to be, I hope, _ she thought. _One day, I'll be as brave as Naruto-kun. Maybe one day, I'll protect him, too. Protect him from some missingnin or a bandit on a mission…_ She smiled wistfully, the vision of the future she had so nice and positive, a far cry from her earlier thoughts. _I'll be a good ninja then. I know I will. _

The sound of footsteps broke her out of her daydream. At first, she hid behind the tree, fearing it might be Seiji, Takeshi or worse, someone from the Hyuuga clan wondering where she was (as if she needed to explain how she got this way and be lectured again), however, around the corner came Naruto, carrying a large towel in his hands.

"Here," he said as he held out the towel. Hinata accepted it gratefully. She had been wondering how she could get home without anyone seeing her. Not to mention what her father would say if he saw her all muddy. _He'll probably think a true Hyuuga would have managed to escape such a childish prank, _ she thought sadly as she used the towel to wipe the mud off her face and hair.

"Oh and…um…" Hinata brought the towel down at Naruto's words and her eyes widened as a result. In his hands was a single flower, a pretty white daisy. "This was the only one in bloom," he said. "It did so yesterday, but you can have it."

She carefully took the flower, staring at it as if the petals were made of gold. Naruto was giving her a flower… She felt her cheeks become warm. And the way Naruto talked, it sounded like he had been watching it grow. Was it possible he had a garden? An image of Naruto surrounded by flowers, watering each of them and making sure no weeds were in the way, appeared in her head. She smiled, holding the daisy close to her chest.

"You know, I was thinking coming back and I was wondering if you could do something for me?"

Once again, Naruto had managed to break into her daydream, him and a garden disappeared into a fog. However, another prospect popped into her head: Naruto needed her for something. He needed her. Maybe, just maybe, she would not be a burden for him. "Um…of course…um…wha…what is…it?"

He grinned. She liked his grin, it made her feel floaty and happy, not to mention confident and bold. "Okay, make sure you don't go to school tomorrow. Say you're sick or something," he added quickly as Hinata's face quickly fell. How exactly was she to manage to skip school? "Whatever you do, just make sure the school gets informed that you can't come to school. Then I want you to meet me in the alleyway next to the Hokage Tower, the one closest to the mountain, okay?"

The idea of missing school still shocking her, she numbly nodded. With that, Naruto's grin, if possible, grew bigger. "Great! I'll see you tomorrow."

She leaned against the tree again as he turned and headed home, waving goodbye to her. "Bye," she responded softly. He was already out of sight, but that did not seem to matter. She merely hugged the towel and stared at her flower. Maybe there was hope after all.

--

Naruto could not help but smirk as he hid on top of some crates outside across from his classroom. He had already met Hina - ? Okay, he still did not have her name down, but at least he remembered her now (classmate, weird girl, always red in the face (fever?), glances away when he looks at her). All he knew was that her name started with Hina and she was a member of the Hyuuga clan.

But so far, the plan had gone off without a hitch. Now he had to wait until the bullies walked into the classroom. Already, class was in session, Iruka going through the attendance sheet. Seiji and Takeshi had not come yet; they were normally late (they came in when Iruka was halfway down the attendance list). That moment would be the perfect time to get them and in perfect view of the teachers.

Footsteps and laughter could be heard down the hall. Just as predicted, the two bullies came walking arrogantly down the hall. However, as they came closer, he could hear what they were saying. "We really got that Hyuuga girl good."

"I was a bit nervous about it, Seiji, but you were right. She was easy prey. We have to get her again."

"I bet she's not even in class today. What a loser!"

Naruto's hand shook upon hearing them, but tried to keep his hand steady. He would do her no good if he sprung the trap early. _You're seriously going to pay, through, _ he thought, angrily.

He waited until they got inside the classroom and then pulled on the wire he had attached inside the pipes. Inside the tubes, two doors opened, allowing the contents to flow through across the hallway from where he hid. Inside the classroom, the pipes opened and the stuff inside landed directly on Seiji and Takeshi.

Naruto had to hold in his amusement as the rest of the class burst out laughing. Seiji and Takeshi stood in the doorway covered in blue paint and white feathers. Iruka was already heading toward the door so Naruto slid off the crates and headed toward where he was meeting the girl.

He ran until he saw her and the Third Hokage walking up to one of the entrances to the academy, then stopped right next to a green bush so the Third would not see him. He picked up a rock and threw it at the wall to signal to her he was here.

At once, she turned her head at the sound and, just as they had talked about, ran away from the Third and toward the bush, ignoring his calls to come back. She entered it and they met right in the middle.

Naruto smiled as he stared at an exact replica of himself. "I'll take it from here," he whispered to her. "Go to the crates outside our classroom. You can watch from there, okay?"

"Naruto!" called out the Third, right outside the bush. "Come out now. You'll be in even more trouble if you run away."

She nodded and undid the henge that disguised herself as him while he stepped out of the bush. He met Sarutobi's face, arranged his features into an annoyed expression and turned away, but allowed himself to be led away when the Third took his shoulder and directed him toward the entrance to the academy.

Everything was going according to plan.

--

Hinata waited a moment for the Third Hokage and Naruto to enter the school (and so her heart would stop racing) before making sure no one else was in the area and left her hiding place. She quickly headed toward the classroom so she would be able to see what precisely Naruto had done.

Getting out of school had been easy, to her surprise. She simply faked a sore throat and fever, which fooled the aide who had attended to her in the morning. She never saw her father (who she was sure would be much harder to fool and would insist she go to school despite being sick). Her attendant just said she would arrange things and for her to get some rest. Afterwards, Hinata had waited for her to return with medicine for her illness, which would indicate she would be staying home, before she could sneak away.

Of course, that had made her late to meet Naruto, but it turned out not to have mattered much. She had a faint idea of what he was doing. All he told her was to henge into him and take his place when he pulled a prank on the Third Hokage.

She reached the crates and started climbing up them. That had been hard to do, acting as Naruto would have when caught. She did not even trust herself to speak, merely made frustrated faces (which were hard for her to do) and kept looking away from the Third (that she happened to be good at). The only time she spoke were short answers like 'yes' or 'no.' She kept thinking they were going to be caught and she did not think she could lie to the Hokage if it came to that, but surprisingly, it did not. The Third lectured her for playing such silly pranks and then escorted her to school.

Now, as she gazed into the window, she finally saw what he had planned. Seiji and Takeshi stood covered in blue paint and white feathers. Iruka had walked out of the classroom and yelled, "Naruto!"

"Iruka…what is all the fuss about?"

Hinata turned to see Sarutobi along with a sour looking Naruto walking up to the classroom. The Third appeared mildly interested while Iruka stared at the two of them in shock. "Hokage-sama! Naruto has been with you?"

Sarutobi glanced down at Naruto, who turned away and folded his arms. "Yes. He thought it would be appropriate to throw eggs at me as I came into work this morning. I've been lecturing him and coming up with a suitable punishment." He turned back to Iruka. "Why? Has something happened?"

Iruka appeared confused. "Well…yes." He went back into the classroom and the Third and Naruto followed. "As you can see, someone saw fit to dump paint and feathers on Seiji and Takeshi here."

"Come on, Iruka-sensei!" screamed Seiji. "It had to be Naruto! Who else would have thought of something like this?"

Iruka shook his head. "Boys, you can't go around accusing people without proof."

Naruto had an innocent expression on his face. Sarutobi looked up at the pipes, examining them closely. "How was this device rigged, Iruka?"

He sighed. "That's the strange part, Hokage-sama. There's no trip wire set up and everyone was inside when Seiji and Takeshi were drenched. And the hallways were clear, too. Other than us in the classroom, no one was around."

"I see…"

"Iruka-sensei!" Hinata heard Ino call out. "There's wire coming out from Seiji's desk."

Iruka walked out of view, but she already had an idea of what Naruto had done. She heard footsteps come back to the doorway and then Iruka came into view, staring at the pipes as if something led to it. His face quickly became stern and he turned back to the two paint covered bullies. "I see now, you two thought it would be funny to cover someone with paint as they walked into the classroom, but it backfired on you, didn't it?"

Hinata held her breath as her nervousness and hopefulness increased dramatically. She could not believe it! Naruto had managed to put the blame on those two!

"No way!" said Takeshi, his face displaying shock even through the paint. "We… we wouldn't do anything like that! Honest! We even came in late."

Iruka nodded, but did not look convinced. "You were probably waiting for someone to come in while we had class."

Seiji furiously shook his head. "I swear, Iruka-sensei, we didn't do this. It…it…it had to be…" He glanced around the classroom, Hinata getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Ah! Hyuuga Hinata! Yeah, she's not even here. It has to be her."

Hinata suddenly felt nervous. She lowered her head so it could not be seen through the window and waited. And nothing but silence happened. Finally, Iruka's flabbergasted voice echoed through the corridor, "You're joking, right? You're blaming Hinata?"

"Yeah. Yesterday, we were walking down the hall and she passed us down the hall. She – she – she tripped and…and went off on us! She blamed us for tripping her. She's paying us back, Iruka-sensei!"

At those words, she cautiously risked glancing through the window again. It was the lamest thing she had ever heard coming from Seiji before or really from anyone and, to her great relief, everyone stared at the two paint soaked bullies as if they had just declared chakra did not exist. Iruka walked up to them, took the two of them by the arm and began to drag them to the door. "I will not tolerate such lies in my classroom. For your information, Hinata is out sick, a personal assistant of the Hyuuga clan came in with the excuse. The two of you are going to the office now."

Hinata ducked down again to avoid being seen. She heard Iruka instruct Naruto to his seat and the class to read one of the chapters and answer the questions at the end while apologizing to the Hokage for the antics of the two bullies. She waited until Seiji and Takeshi's complaints and their footsteps disappeared down the hall before crawling off the crates.

She paused for a moment, leaning against the crates and her hands over her heart. She was not sure what to make out of Naruto pranking the bullies for their treatment of him. She had never really been very vengeful, however, what got to her the most was the fact that Naruto had done this on her behalf. That made her feel happy. It made her feel she actually had a chance with him after all.

With a small smile on her face, she headed home before her absence would be missed.

--

Naruto saw Hinata (finally got her name right!) under the tree with the swing where he had asked her to meet him the day after the prank. It was still early so only a few students were around. The perfect time to talk without people overhearing.

Naruto grinned. "Heh! So what did you think? Pretty great prank, huh? I'm disappointed I can't take credit for it, but I guess in the long run, that doesn't really matter, right?"

As usual, she avoided his eyes, but she nodded. "I – I…um…Tha – thank you…Naruto-kun."

He tilted his head to the site, confused at her reaction. He thought she would talk about the prank. "For what?" he asked.

She fidgeted while poking her two fingers together. "Just…um…because…"

It was then she looked up, a smile on her face. Naruto smiled back, still somewhat confused, but felt as long as she was happy, it did not really matter what she thought of the prank. He placed his arms behind his head as he grinned back at her. "Heh no problem."

"Well, I thought it was quite the ingenious prank."

Naruto and Hinata jumped; Hinata immediately ran behind him and cowered while Naruto glared at the source of the voice. "Old man! Don't you blame her for this! She had nothing to do with it!" he said quickly.

The Third Hokage chuckled, holding his pipe as he stared down at the two children. "Really now? I believe the official record say Seiji and Takeshi were behind the prank." He brought his pipe down and smirked at two surprised faces. "Now if you have any information to the contrary, I suggest you speak to Iruka."

Naruto blinked and exchanged glances with Hinata. Did that sound like what he thought it did? The Third was going to turn a blind eye to what he did? "Um…sir…" began Hinata.

"Seiji and Takeshi confessed what they did to you the day before, Hinata." Sarutobi bent down and placed a comforting hand on her head. "Iruka and I questioned them since they blamed you for the act, which, of course, to anyone who knows you, you would never do. Afterwards, they confessed to a number of incidents with your other classmates, more than we thought they were behind." He stepped up, took out his pipe for a moment and blew out some smoke and then smiled. "The two of them won't bother either of you or your classmates again. They have been expelled."

Hinata's mouth dropped open while Naruto jumped for joy. Finally, he would not be picked on anymore, or at least for the eight hours or so he stayed at school (which, in the deep part of his mind, still did not guarantee he would not be picked on, but he could take everyone else's treatment…a little…). "All right! That's great, Old Man!"

Sarutobi started to walk away. "However, I urge the two of you to report any mistreatment to me or Iruka. It would have gotten this done faster, I believe."

Hinata muttered yes and bowed to him, but Naruto returned to glaring. "Aww but that's no fun!" But he smiled afterwards, glad to see the old man on their side. And he was especially glad the girl beside him was happy.

The first bell rang, which signaled to the students that school was starting. Hinata started to the door, but then stopped and turned around. "Um…Nar – Naruto-kun?"

He sat on his swing and started moved back and forth on it. "Eh go on. I'm usually late anyway."

"Oh…" She glanced down to the ground, biting the lower part of her lip. "Well…bye then." She resumed her journey to her classroom, leaving Naruto to his swing and an angry Iruka who would come out five minutes after roll call and finding him not in class.

Things returned to normal between Naruto and Hinata. Despite their small time together, she still felt too shy to talk to him and waited for him to commence where they left off. He, on the other hand, took her looking away as a sign she did not want to talk and just assumed she was being weird again. It would remain that way until the Chuunin exam and she finally got the courage to tell him to do his best on the written exam and offer her test paper up for him to cheat off.

However, there would be nights when Hinata would lie awake at night and feel sad for something that had happened during the day, but instead of wallowing in her own dejection, she would open a book she always kept on the table. The book held the first flower she ever pressed, a white daisy, and she would remember what Naruto had done for her, his courage, confidence and belief in himself and she would fall asleep quickly.

And Naruto would lie on his back on nights he could not get to sleep, remembering how he helped a girl being picked on by the school's worst bullies and think of how he would help a lot of people when he became Hokage…

Someday…

The End

* * *

Did I not say the ending might be lame? Kind of makes me nervous a bit, but I enjoy Naruto and Hinata having identical moments like that.

In Hanakotoba, Daisies are supposed to symbolize faith...I think. I really couldn't find a uniformed source on that. I used that symbolism because it wasn't too romantic, it was a simple flower Naruto could very well have grown (I'm not sure if he would have grown roses!) and it kind of fits into Naruto and Hinata's themes, having faith in yourself. I think this started when I thought of Naruto giving Hinata a flower, which became the first flower she pressed (flower pressing is her hobby). It quickly got linked to my April Fool's Day task and this is the result.

Thanks for reading - NessaMoon


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